A direct free kick is awarded if a player commits any of the following offences:

• holds an opponent

• impedes an opponent with contact

https://www.thefa.com/football-rule.../football-11-11/law-12---fouls-and-misconduct

So why is PGMOL ignoring Arsenal players constantly grabbing players in the box?

3 penalties in this one corner. It's getting ridiculous, imagine grabbing a player with both arms as they jump for the ball on the halfway line and not getting a foul.

Saliba and Rice aren't even looking at the ball, Timber just clamping Trev from moving with no intention of playing the ball either. Hato already pushed to the ground before the ball reaches the box.

Remember the World Cup when England got a load of pens for small grabs and pulls?

Edited March 2Mar 2 by DarkMata

WELL WELL WELL, ALEX CROOK WITH HIS CRYSTAL BALL

HE SAID THIS ON FRIDAY

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

So why is PGMOL ignoring Arsenal players constantly grabbing players in the box?

Because they want Arsenal to win the league?

2 hours ago, forbzy said:

Because they want Arsenal to win the league?

I’m not into conspiracies, but there is a sense that the press are very keen to see Arsenal win it, and maybe that does extend to the officials. Might well be clouding their judgements.

23 hours ago, Snedger said:

It’s funny, but I could have said that when Abramovich bought the club. I didn’t recognise Chelsea FC anymore. We were a yo-yo club that always had a mixture of young potential talent and older journeymen players that cost little and usually came from lower league sides or Scotland or the odd has been.

Then the struggling club with a loyal and decent but not huge following were buying all the best players and had a better 2nd eleven than the next best team. Then supporters started popping up all over the place. Where were they all when I was amongst 8000 watching us draw at home to Rotherham United in Division 2 in April 1983?

My dad witnessed the promise and excitement of Dave Sexton’s team fall apart. He went from seeing Osgood and Cooke in cup finals to seeing the mess of the late seventies. That collapse saw the club in a far bigger mess than we’re in now.

Just thought I’d try and throw some context into all the whining, wailing and entitlement going on.

I was there! Also up at Bolton for 1-0 win that saved our existence probably. The players cost less and wages as well. The internet would’ve broke back then!!!

I mean haven't they done the same thing at set pieces all season? Is not just an against Chelsea thing.

If thy Can do it without a foul being called then why would they think is a foul? VAR and the refs allow it.

Arsenal will have a hard time winning this unless they can get Odegaard healthy and ready to play in time. Yes, Eze is a good player who can find goals given the opportunity, but his game IMO does not gel well enough with what Arsenal need under Arteta.
Maybe they can scrape by with set pieces for a few games, but it looks like Cify found some form and are playing better.

Edited March 2Mar 2 by acaeus

8 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

So why is PGMOL ignoring Arsenal players constantly grabbing players in the box?

Because like with all laws, the gap between what is written and how it is practically applied is a chasm.

It was not that long ago that players could not so much as look at a goalkeeper or defender while contesting a corner. Short corners became the set piece of choice. Because people felt the game was going 'too soft' and complained that the art of actually contesting set pieces was dying out, the application of the rules was changed so that 'jostling' before the corner was permitted as the ball was 'not in play' - arguably, as it has always been done prior to the mid-2010s.

The referees looked to take a stricter approach to corner shenanigans this season but the new guidance they came up with is so impractical to ever enforce in reality. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

From the article, here's the 'new' considerations:

- Sustained holding. If the holding is fleeting, there may be no impact on the opponent

- Impact on an opponent's ability to play or challenge for the ball

- A clear non-footballing action where the offending player has no interest in playing the ball

- Mutual holding by both players usually will not be penalised

It is virtually impossible for a human referee to make those judgements in real time. It is absolutely a valid interpretation to say that Arsenal's players are physically jostling for position before they are making a play for the ball, as is within the laws, and also there is a good argument to say that other players need to be more physical and less soft about allowing Arsenal's players to gain advantage. The laws do not prevent you from impeding someone before both players are actually making a play. The only practical way to accurately judge this is through VAR, but VAR is not permitted to intervene at this stage.

Arsenal exploit this in two ways:

1. Corners target the goalkeeper and the centre of the six-yard box. This was never popular in the past because goalkeepers used to be trained to claim crosses (this would never work against prime Cech, van der Sar or Kahn) and it was difficult to hit a hard, flat ball across this area that also somehow cleared the first man.
   

2. One player "attacks" the near post flick-on. Their role is actually to hold and prevent the "first-man" defender marking the near post, by grappling and applying downward pressure to limit their ability to jump. They have no interest in playing the ball but their role is restricting the ability of the "first-man" to intercept flat crosses.
   

3. Other players use grappling and holding in the area. Their goal is to hold down an opponent, restricting their leap so that another attacker can go for the ball unchallenged. This also includes interfering with the goalkeeper, which is now permitted basically until the ball is near the spot.

It's points 2 & 3 where Arsenal's tactics cross the line from a genuine physical contest to one that is cheating. The players in 2 & 3 have no role or interesting in competing for the ball, they are essentially running interference NFL-style to optimise someone else's play for the ball. A genuine physical contest would be two players going shoulder-to-shoulder to jostle for position, not one simply piggybacking the other in an effort to limit his jump. Arsenal's players are making no effort to physically contest the ball, they are simply adding weight to restrict their opponent's jump. This means it is not as simple as saying opposition players should simply "be stronger" because no one can actually jump 50cm while carrying a 75kg man as a backpack, it is mechanically impossible.

The law is also weighted against the defender, because one of the only rules enforced "before the ball is in play" is violent conduct. Meaning that if/when a defender lashes out to stop an opponent grappling him, he is at risk of being sanctioned. If an attacker commits a foul the only consequence is that they void the set-piece, whereas if a defender commits a foul it's a penalty and potentially even a red card.

The solution is obviously a rule change and to allow the use of VAR to detect fouls in the build-up to a set-piece, but I don't know if clubs will actually support this. Theoretically any club can take advantage of these new rules, and smaller clubs like Brentford (who popularised the exploits in the first place) have good reason to want to keep the rules as they are. I doubt very much there would be sufficient motive to change rules unless Arsenal win a title in particularly controversial circumstances, but the reality is most media and clubs would rather an Arsenal win than another City title. The politics is not in favour of change.

It would be unfair to suggest that there is no skill involved here. Actually there are two very clear skills that Arsenal have, that show why they are repeatedly successful. One is that their corner-takers are actually very accurate and they consistently hit good balls into the desired area. The second and more impressive is that every single player seems to immediately know whether they are going to run interference or attack the ball, the moment the ball is kicked. It's an instinctive switch that gives them the split second advantage, and it only comes from hours of drilling it in practice.

There is an on-field solution and Maresca actually had it mastered. Arsenal buckled when Maresca kept 3-4 players in counter-attacking positions. It threw their set piece game plan in disarray because the risk-to-reward ratio completely shifted. Even when perfectly executed there is a good chance Sanchez claims the ball uncontested and distributes to extremely quick players on the counter. This is the way forward, to punish Arsenal for seeking set pieces. For all the hype, they have only scored 16 goals from 170 corners so even the best team has long-odds of success.

Secondly, the real strength is that Arsenal tend to score corners to go 1-0 up or equalise ie. set pieces allow them to capitalise at crucial moments. The solution to that is to take away the 'game state' - score first and attack, rather than sit back and allow them to farm set pieces.

Thirdly, for the corner itself, players need to move. They need to use extreme man marking and not zonal marking. One trick is that Arsenal are reacting to the defenders' positions rather than the traditional vice-versa. Got grappled? Grab back and physically move them out of the box. The issue is defenders still try to use old-school shoulder charges rather than using Arsenal's own tactics against them. Keep as many away from the 6-yard box as possible and allow the goalkeeper to claim.

Edited March 3Mar 3 by SydneyChelsea

14 hours ago, Snedger said:

I’m not into conspiracies, but there is a sense that the press are very keen to see Arsenal win it, and maybe that does extend to the officials. Might well be clouding their judgements.

So you are into conspiracies. It's tosh.

13 hours ago, Richard P said:

I was there! Also up at Bolton for 1-0 win that saved our existence probably. The players cost less and wages as well. The internet would’ve broke back then!!!

The Bolton game was my second match. Still have the programmes from both games somewhere.

1 hour ago, dermott said:

So you are into conspiracies. It's tosh.

No. Just that all humans have thoughts and preferences and just maybe we can all make a call with slight bias.

24 minutes ago, Snedger said:

No. Just that all humans have thoughts and preferences and just maybe we can all make a call with slight bias.

So the refs, en masse, make calls with slight bias? Nuh.

56 minutes ago, dermott said:

So the refs, en masse, make calls with slight bias? Nuh.

I didn't say 'en masse'. But it's fine, you have your belief, and I am not saying it IS what is happening as I have zero evidence. I just know that I'd struggle to be a referee because I'd be as bent as a nine bob note. And personally, I couldn't care less whether Arsenal or City win the title as I don't like either of them.

On 02/03/2026 at 07:54, Snedger said:

Just thought I’d try and throw some context into all the whining, wailing and entitlement going on.

I get where you're coming from, but for me 'entitlement' is the wrong word. In fact, I think the reason why many feel as they do is because of the exact opposite; we've been in objectively worse situations, and still had a lot more to be proud of.

I think a more accurate word would be embarassment. You are right to point out that the club has been in this exact situation before, a plucky upper-table club fighting for cups and CL qualification. The difference is, Ken Bates didn't spend >£2bn to do it. Our blessed new owners have spent unimaginable amounts of money, in a very short period of time, to take the club from its peak only return us to the same state we were 25 years ago.

Fans would absolutely be more accepting of this new reality if BlueCo didn't spend the money they did, and talk the way they do. It would be completely different if BlueCo came in, cut spending and downsized expectations to reflect the reality of not having an oligarchic sugar daddy, but instead they insist the club is even better than before.

What makes it hurt even more are the calculated and deliberate actions to downplay the club's past and history and the mistreatment of loyal fans. We are now also past the part of using the owners' private funds, the most recent spending has been fuelled by the club's funds through squeezing fans and selling the club's assets. Many feel shamed because they want to keep it about the football but the ownership absolutely does not, to them the club is a means to exploit a British cultural institution for their personal profit.

Most people could forgive poor results if there was still something to be proud of. No one in their right mind can be proud of the club right now, and many of us see our club as the flagship of unwanted changes in football as a whole.

Edited March 3Mar 3 by SydneyChelsea